Jonathan Groff Plays Mind Games in David Flincher's Netflix Thriller

Jonathan Groff may be the closest thing we have to a life-size teddy bear, but this month the Looking actor goes from snuggly to super dark.

In David Fincher's Netflix thriller, Mindhunter, Groff plays Holden Ford, a 1970s investigator who pioneers the method of criminal profiling, matching wits with members of a newly named criminal subclass: the serial killer.

"Now it's pretty much the whole FBI, but back then behavioral science was a small part of the agency," says Groff. "This is about the revelation that serial killers were something worth looking at instead of locking up for life and ignoring."

Embodying a role in which he had to scrutinize murderous minds was as intense as it sounds. "A lot of the show's stars come from theater," says Groff, an alum of Hamilton and Spring Awakening. "And the amount of time David Fincher spent crafting each moment reminds me of theater. I've never worked harder in my life."

Mindhunter is slated to debut on Netflix Friday, October. 13.